Asian carp search moves to North Shore Channel

May 04, 2010

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources will soon unveil the next phase of its search to find Asian carp in Chicago waterways, perhaps restricting kayaks and small boats from the North Shore Channel while researchers track carp using fishing nets and electric shock.

The department's spokesman, Chris McCloud, declined to give specifics about the plan but said commercial boating and cargo shipping would not be effected because they don't travel along the North Shore corridor, a shallow, century-old drainage canal that directs sewage from the north branch of the Chicago River.

"This will not interrupt their service," McCloud said. "This is an area that's far too shallow for water taxis or barges or any of that."

It could disrupt plans for some recreational boaters, McCloud said, but probably only for a couple of days while researchers seek out Asian carp in an area of the channel where carp DNA had been found.

The methods will be similar to those used in February, McCloud said, when DNR scientists used nets and electrical current to locate the destructive Asian carp in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Calumet Sag Channel.